Roses and Fear
by M.L. Dee
Summary: Your childhood nightmares could come back to haunt you. Fear takes on many forms with each more terrifying than the last. What is your fear? Note: Fear's character is loosely based on Pitch. Enjoy.


I heard Lily's screams echo from the living room and I, fearing the worse, dropped everything to run towards her cries. "Lily!" I yelled as I practically broke down the door to the living room.

There on the couch was my little sister, Lily, cowering under a blanket, while my best friend, Gale, lay on the floor laughing his head off. I relaxed as I took in the scene. Gale had probably played some practical joke on my poor little sister. Still cowering under the blanket, she lifted her head and found my gaze.

Lily threw off the blanket, and with her blue eyes widened in terror and her light blonde curls bouncing around her face, she ran over to hug my leg. As she latched on to my leg and through tears she cried, "Cathy! The Bogeyman is going to get me! Gale said he's going to get me and eat me!"

I gently stroked her hair and calmly said, "Lily, the Bogeyman isn't going to get you, he doesn't exist and besides even if he did exist I wouldn't let him get you. Now go find Mom." I knew if I couldn't comfort her, Mom always could and Lily's crying had already been reduced to sniffles. She nodded her head and went off to search for Mom. I watched her leave the room and then quickly turned my attention to Gale who was still laughing on the floor as I glared down at him.

He finally managed to stop laughing long enough for him to say a couple words. "Sorry Cathy, I didn't mean to scare your sister that bad. I was just telling her a little monster story. We were practically bored to death in here, being cooped up from the weather and all." He gestured toward the window where I could see it was still raining pretty hard, but at least there wasn't any thunder or lightning. I plopped down on the plush white carpet and stared at the gray light that was seeping through the window from outside.

I was still annoyed with him, but I decided to just move on.

"Of all stories, the Bogeyman?" I asked, "Talk about old-school; it doesn't even scare kids anymore."

He had a smug grin on his face as he answered, "Well, it worked on your sister." The smile fell from his face as I glared at him again.

Quick to change the subject, he asked, "Weren't you even scared of the Bogeyman once?"

I snorted as I replied, "Yeah, when I was like five years old, but now it's just another stupid old story." Suddenly a flash of lightning appeared across the sky to be followed by a thunderous boom. Then it was silent again save for the sound of falling rain.

"Well I better go before it gets worse out there," Gale said as he stood up, "Again, sorry about scaring your sister."

I looked away, still annoyed at him for that and as he walked down the hall I called, "Don't slip in a puddle and break your neck on your way home." With out turning around he gave me a wave and walked out the door.

Later that night I slipped on a pair of my comfiest pajamas and climbed into bed. It was still raining, but there wasn't any lightning or thunder. There hadn't been any since this afternoon with Gale and the rain in the background made it easy to fall asleep. I let the noise outside of my window lull me to sleep. It was easy to feel safe if all that terrible pouring rain was on the outside, but safety was the last thing I would experience that night.

I was in bed asleep, but I was staring at myself. It was like watching someone on a movie. I could see my dark brown hair in a tangled mess around my face while my hands lay cupped underneath my head. Suddenly the air tensed as though someone had entered the room. I saw something black rising up from under my bed. It crept up my sheets like a spider or smoke and slowly I began to see it was a black boney hand with sharp pointed nails that could almost be claws. As it grew closer to my sleeping body it appeared to grow and soon a whole dark arm was looming over my sleeping self. I tried to cry out and warn my sleeping self, but found that I could not speak. Suddenly the claw hand grabbed my face and covered my mouth. I watched as my brown eyes flung open and filled with terror and both the girl cowering in the bed and I screamed.

I sat up in my bed while my body was soaked with sweat. I stared down at my hands, flipping them over and over again to make sure I was me. I looked madly around the room, but all was silent. The rain outside had stopped, but it had left an eerie silence over everything. I took a deep breath and reached toward my bedside table to switch on my lamp. I was careful not to knock it over since the lamp was wobbly and the table was barely big enough to hold the lamp and my clock. The clock said it was still pretty late.

I sighed and switch off my lamp and tried to go to sleep. I heard dripping water somewhere down the hall. It was probably another leak in this old house, but I decided to count the drips to help me get back to sleep.

_Drip. Drip. Drip._ Three drips. _Drip. Drip. Drip_. Six drips. _Drip. Drip. Drip_. Nine drips. _Drip. Drip._ The dripping stopped. I sighed again and rolled over.

Suddenly I heard Lily's scream from down the hall.

"Cathy! Help!"

I jumped out of bed and raced to her room. I flung myself through Lily's door and scoured the room for any sign of her. She wasn't there. I was about to call out for her when I heard a far off scream coming from under her bed. I dove under her bed, but it felt like I was diving into a pool of ice-cold water.

I was falling through something, but it wasn't water. I opened my eyes and immediately wished I hadn't. All around me was freezing darkness. I was falling through it and bitter wind was whipping around my face and lashing out at my unprotected skin. My ears were ringing with what sounded like million of people screaming in terror. I tried to cover my ears, but the screaming continued. There was no place to get away from the sound, no place to get away from the darkness, no place to hide. I wanted to scream with others, but any sound that I made was lost in the cold dark wind.

Eventually the wind died down and I had stopped falling. I opened my eyes to find that I was sitting on my knees with my arms at my sides in a chamber of some sort. The floor was made of cold black tiles that I could feel was sucking the remaining warmth out of my body.

There appeared to be light coming from somewhere because I could see in front of me. However the light only illuminated a small circular area and whether the darkness around the small circle was either walls or shadows that hid terrible creatures was knowledge that was beyond me.

I inspected what I could see. In the middle of the lit area was a small black table with a mosaic surface made of black tile similar to that on the floor. Sitting on top of the table was a glass vase with a single bright red rose. Next to the table was black metal chair covered in decorative yet threatening looking spikes and sitting in the chair was a young frightening looking man. He was leaning back causally in his chair and smiling at me with a grin that chilled me to the bone.

"Hello Cathy," he said in a polite but frozen voice, "it's been a while since I've seen you."

The already cold air somehow grew colder and tense when he spoke. The grin on his face tightened. He continued, "Last time I saw you, you were what? Five?" There was a hint of amusement in his voice that frightened me. I was already frozen with fear and shock from what I had experienced in that dark wind.

"Where's Lily?" I finally managed to say. However, instead of answering me he began laughing a terrible laugh and started walking towards me.

I winced with every step he took as his footsteps clinked loudly against the black tile. My muscles tightened as he came closer and closer. Soon he was right in front of me still laughing. I was too scared to move; too scared to scream.

At last he managed to stop long enough to say, "Oh, so you want to find Lily do you?" He lowered his face to mine with that frightening grin still on his face and that terrifying hint of amusement still in his voice. His bright yellow eyes staring down at me while I could only stare back with fear. His grin widened as he began to open his mouth. "Why, she's right here," he said, almost shouting it.

Suddenly he was gone; it was as if I had changed rooms, even though I could feel the same cold black tile beneath me. Then I saw a figure lying in the middle of the room where the table had been. It was Lily.

"Lily!" I screamed as I tried to get up to run towards her. She was lying there with her eyes cold and her face looking ashen and cold. She wasn't breathing and her crumpled body looked as if it had been dead hours ago.

"No!" I screamed with desperation in my voice, but I couldn't move the lower half of my body. I tried fighting it. I tried to drag myself towards Lily. I could almost crawl toward her, but something was keeping me from moving. It was pressing me down into the spot where I laid, still trying to reach Lily.

Suddenly Lily was gone and now in her place was Gale. He was laying unconscious on a sidewalk in a puddle with his neck twisted at an odd angle. He really had slipped and broken his neck. "No! Gale!" I screamed once more as I choked on my tears. Gale didn't answer and then he was gone just like Lily.

Then came my parents who were on fire, then it was the group of friends I sat with at lunch with their flesh and faces mauled, and then many more people I knew came after. By then I had closed my eyes, but I could still hear the screams. I tried not to make out any of the voices, but some of them I recognized instantly.

"Make it stop!" I shouted again as tears poured down my face. Then the screams stopped.

When I opened my eyes I was in the room I had been in before. There was that man again standing by the table. He had picked up the rose that had been in the vase and was staring intently at it. Somehow the silence of the room was more frightening then the screams I had been hearing before.

I sat up and wiped the tears off my face with my sleeve. Then his chilling voice rang out over the silence.

"Cathy, have you ever seen a rose bleed?" he said in that polite tone from before.

"No" I said in a small voice. He turned to face me, but continued to stare at the rose.

"It works best when the petals have just begun to open up, just when they come out into the world." He reached up with his gloved hand to stroke the soft petals, but then he took the rose in both hands. _Snap!_

The rose fell to the ground while a liquid as bright red as the petals had began to seep from the stem and soon a small pool formed around the wilted rose.

"Fear is the same way." the man said with his voice catching me off guard. I looked up to find him staring at me intently the same way he had done so with the rose.

"That's why I scare children, when they've just opened up to the world." He continued, "But I give them something that lasts well beyond their childhood, isn't that right Cathy?"

His frightening grin came back as he stared down at me. He started walking towards me again while he began to whisper, "I am more than just a stupid old story. I am more than just the Bogeyman. I am more than just the monster hiding under your bed. I am the very essence of fear it self. I am fear."

He stood right in front of me now. His voice, that had started as a whisper, had grown louder and louder until he had begun to shout at me. I was still gazing at the rose that lay in the pool of blood by the table, not wanting to face the towering dark figure right in front of me.

Suddenly he grabbed the bottom of my chin and pulled my face up so I would have to stare at his twisted face. His glowing yellow eyes were pulsing as I felt the coldness from his hand through the black leather gloves he wore.

He started to speak again "Fear isn't just a child's game, my dear Cathy. It's something everyone has, even you." He started laughing again but this laugh seemed even more horrible and hysterical then the last.

Then he was gone, but I could still hear his horrible laughter until that too faded away. There was nothing around me, but darkness again. It was still cold, but there was no wind. I reached out trying to find something to grab onto when my hand hit the hard metal surface. I felt around me and found that I was lying down in a large metal box of some kind.

That's when the dripping started. I began to hear dripping sounds coming from the bottom of the box near my feet. _Drip. Drip. Drip. _Three drips. Then the dripping picked up pace. _Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip._ Nine drips. Then the water began to gush out from where ever it was. I felt the box fill up around me. The water was ice cold and that's when I realized what was happening.

I began screaming and pounding my fists against the metal surface, but I could feel the water level growing higher and higher in the box. I continued to desperately scream and slam myself against the metal. There was no air left. The bubbles from my cries swarmed around my face as I screamed one last time.

I sat straight up in my bed still screaming. When I finally managed to stop screaming, I looked around to find that I was in my room. Then I remembered what had happened and broke out in a cold sweat.

"Lily!" I shouted from my bed. When I received no answer, I sprang out from my bed. Something crashed to the floor beside me, but I didn't bother to look.

"Lily!" I cried once more from my room. I was too terrified to move from my room. I wasn't frightened of what I would find searching Lily's room. I was more frightened of what I wouldn't find.

Then I heard the pitter patter and little feet coming from down the hall and sure enough Lily appeared at my doorway in her light pink night gown rubbing her eyes and dragging her soft white teddy bear behind her.

"What is it Cathy?" she said as she yawned.

"Lily!" I said as I ran to her and threw my arms around her.

"Where were you?" I asked her as I hugged her tightly not wanting to let go.

"I spent the night in Mommy and Daddy's room cause I was too scared to sleep in my room," she answered.

Then her eyes grew wide as she stared past me to the mess on the floor. She pointed and asked, "Cathy, what happened?" I turned around expecting my lamp to be shattered all over the floor, but that was not what was on the floor. There on the white floor was the shattered glass of what once was a glass vase. Amidst the shards was a rose snapped in half lying in a pool of bright red blood.


End file.
